tbuckley/cabot-search huggingface dataset:
Diagnosing prostate cancer at a curable stage means providing PSA tests to asymptomatic patients
Authors: Christopher M Booth, Frank Chinegwundoh, Stephen Allen, Hendrik Van Poppel
Journal: BMJ (2022)

<b>Background:</b> Screening has been recommended to reduce the prevalence and morbidity associated with genital chlamydia infection in the United Kingdom. <b>Methods:</b> We describe the rationale and study design of the Chlamydia Screening Studies (ClaSS), a collaborative project designed to evaluate screening outside genitourinary medicine clinics. A non-selective, active screening approach in 16–39 year olds randomly sampled from 27 general practice lists in the Bristol and Birmingham areas formed the basis of interlinked studies: a case-control study was used to investigate factors to improve the targeting of screening; participants with chlamydia were invited to enrol in a randomised controlled trial to evaluate partner notification conducted in primary care; and laboratory based studies were used to assess the best specimens and tests. We also explored psychosocial effects of screening and partner notification and modelled the cost effectiveness of the programme. <b>Conclusion:</b> Results from four pilot practices show that mailing of specimens for chlamydia testing is feasible but that it is difficult to achieve high response rates with postal screening. The high prevalence of asymptomatic infection in men suggests that efforts to screen men for chlamydia should be strengthened.
Introducing the International Confederation of Sport and Exercise Science Practice (ICSESP)
Authors: Nathan Reeves, Nick Draper, Kirstin N Lane, Francis Neric, Keith Tolfrey, Kade Davison
Journal: British Journal of Sports Medicine (2022)

Since 1976, benfluorex has been approved in Europe as a hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic drug, and is commonly used in the treatment of the metabolic syndrome. As a derivative of fenfluramine with an appetite suppressant action, benfluorex is preferentially used in overweight patients. In contrast to fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine, to date, benfluorex has not been reported to be associated with frequent cardiovascular side-effects. The present study reports five cases of severe pulmonary arterial hypertension and one case of valvular heart disease occurring in patients exposed to benfluorex. These individuals were middle age, diabetic females with a body mass index ranging 24.2–49 kg·m<sup>−2</sup>. No definite causal effect for cardiovascular disease with benfluorex can be drawn from such case reports. However, as benfluorex, like dexfenfluramine and fenfluramine, is metabolised into active metabolite norfenfluramine, further extensive assessment of drug exposure in newly diagnosed pulmonary arterial hypertension or valvular heart disease patients is warranted.
Mental health: cultural competency is key to improving outcomes for ethnic minority patients, leaders say
Authors: Pat Lok
Journal: BMJ (2022)

<h3>Background</h3> Medication errors frequently occur in surgical units, partly due to the large number of prescribers (surgeons, anaesthetists, dieticians) and to potential interactions between anaesthesia and medications taken by the patient. In order to reduce these errors in digestive and urological surgery, a mobile team of clinical pharmacists has been deployed. The activities (medication reconciliation (MR), pharmaceutical analysis and optimisation at the patient's bedside) are led by a pharmacist, a pharmacy resident and two students. <h3>Purpose</h3> The objective of our study was to evaluate the impact of a clinical pharmacy organisation on patient care safety and the satisfaction of physicians and nurses in digestive and urological surgical units (84 beds). <h3>Material and methods</h3> Over 9 months, all pharmaceutical interventions (PI) were registered and categorised according to the French Society of Clinical Pharmacy (SFPC). The number of PIs leading to a prescription's modification was recorded. A satisfaction survey was performed 8 months after the deployment: 104 professionals (surgeons, residents, anaesthesiologists, nurses) were interviewed to evaluate their satisfaction. The survey included questions regarding the quality of information provided by the pharmaceutical team and the impact on patient safety. <h3>Results</h3> Since November 2016, 2808 patients benefited from the pharmaceutical team, and 1,334 PIs have been performed. Those PIs concerned 23.5% of the patients: most of them were related to inadvertently omitted medications (38%) or incorrect posology (32%). 1159 (87%) PIs were accepted by the prescriber and led to a prescription modification. Regarding the satisfaction survey, we collected 58 answers: 96% of the respondents were satisfied by the actions of the team and 98% agreed that those activities increased patient care safety. Furthermore, 94% thought that other surgery units should benefit from the same activities. <h3>Conclusion</h3> The high acceptance rate of PIs demonstrates the importance of the pharmaceutical team in improving healthcare safety regarding medications. The satisfaction survey confirms that the pharmaceutical offer is well accepted and useful to healthcare professionals. Finally, since the deployment of the team, we observed a simultaneous decrease in medications expenses in the units (−17%), allowing continuity of the actions taken and extension of the team in other surgical units. No conflict of interest
Small-sized versus standard magnetic capsule endoscopy in adults: a two-center, double-blinded randomized controlled trial
Authors: Xi Jiang, Xiao-Ou Qiu, Zhen Li, Jun Pan, Cheng Peng, Xiu-Li Zuo, Zhuan Liao, Zhao-Shen Li
Journal: Endoscopy (2022)

Background Certain patients experience difficulty swallowing a video capsule endoscopy (VCE) device owing to its relatively large size. The newly developed small-sized magnetically controlled capsule endoscopy (MCE) device is the smallest VCE device ever reported. We aimed to evaluate the performance of the small-sized MCE device in terms of ingestion and examination efficacy. Methods Patients in two centers were prospectively enrolled and randomized to the small-sized or standard MCE groups. Differences in capsule ingestion difficulties, visualization of the gastrointestinal tract, and capsule transit times were compared. Results 96 patients were enrolled (48 in each group). In the small-sized MCE group, the mean (SD) difficulty score and time to swallow the capsule, and success rate for swallowing the capsule at the first attempt were 0.6 (1.0), 3.4 (1.3) seconds, and 89.6 %, which was significant better compared with the standard MCE group with 3.1 (1.7), 12.0 (14.3) seconds and 60.4 %, respectively (all P &lt; 0.001). Visualization of the esophagus, stomach, and small bowel were comparable between the two groups. The small-sized MCE group had a significantly shorter gastric transit time (49.4 minutes vs. 66.2 minutes; P = 0.04) and longer small-bowel transit time (5.8 hours vs. 5.0 hours; P = 0.045). Conclusions The small-sized MCE device is feasible and safe for gastrointestinal examination, alleviating difficulties in capsule ingestion, improving gastric emptying under magnetic control, and prolonging the small-bowel transit time.
Multi-center validation of machine learning model for preoperative prediction of postoperative mortality
Authors: Seung Wook Lee, Hyung-Chul Lee, Jungyo Suh, Kyung Hyun Lee, Heonyi Lee, Suryang Seo, Tae Kyong Kim, Sang-Wook Lee, Yi-Jun Kim
Journal: npj Digital Medicine (2022)

Accurate prediction of postoperative mortality is important for not only successful postoperative patient care but also for information-based shared decision-making with patients and efficient allocation of medical resources. This study aimed to create a machine-learning prediction model for 30-day mortality after a non-cardiac surgery that adapts to the manageable amount of clinical information as input features and is validated against multi-centered rather than single-centered data. Data were collected from 454,404 patients over 18 years of age who underwent non-cardiac surgeries from four independent institutions. We performed a retrospective analysis of the retrieved data. Only 12-18 clinical variables were used for model training. Logistic regression, random forest classifier, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and deep neural network methods were applied to compare the prediction performances. To reduce overfitting and create a robust model, bootstrapping and grid search with tenfold cross-validation were performed. The XGBoost method in Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) data delivers the best performance in terms of the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) (0.9376) and the area under the precision-recall curve (0.1593). The predictive performance was the best when the SNUH model was validated with Ewha Womans University Medical Center data (AUROC, 0.941). Preoperative albumin, prothrombin time, and age were the most important features in the model for each hospital. It is possible to create a robust artificial intelligence prediction model applicable to multiple institutions through a light predictive model using only minimal preoperative information that can be automatically extracted from each hospital.
Cancer as microenvironmental, systemic and environmental diseases: opportunity for transdisciplinary microbiomics science
Authors: Kentaro Inamura, Tsuyoshi Hamada, Susan Bullman, Tomotaka Ugai, Shinichi Yachida, Shuji Ogino
Journal: Gut (2022)

Cancer is generally regarded as a localised disease, with the well-established role of the tumour microenvironment. However, the realm of cancer goes beyond the tumour microenvironment, and cancer should also be regarded as a systemic and environmental disease. The exposome ( ie, the totality of exposures), which encompasses diets, supplements, smoking, alcohol, other lifestyle factors, medications, etc , likely alters the microbiome (inclusive of bacteria, viruses, archaea, fungi, parasites, etc ) and immune system in various body sites and influences tumour phenotypes. The systemic metabolic/inflammatory status, which is likely influenced by exposures and intestinal physiological changes, may affect tissue microenvironment of colorectum and any other organs. Germline genomic factors can modify disease phenotypes via gene-by-environment interactions. Although challenges exist, it is crucial to advance not only basic experimental research that can analyse the effects of exposures, microorganisms and microenvironmental components on tumour evolution but also interdisciplinary human population research that can dissect the complex pathogenic roles of the exposome, microbiome and immunome. Metagenomic, metatranscriptomic and metabolomic analyses should be integrated into well-designed population research combined with advanced methodologies of artificial intelligence and molecular pathological epidemiology. Ideally, a prospective cohort study design that enables biospecimen (such as stool) collection before disease detection should be considered to address reverse causation and recall biases. Robust experimental and observational research together can provide insights into dynamic interactions between environmental exposures, microbiota, tumour and immunity during carcinogenesis processes, thereby helping us develop precision prevention and therapeutic strategies to ultimately reduce the cancer burden.
Accurate liquid biopsy for the diagnosis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and liver fibrosis
Authors: Giulia Angelini, Simona Panunzi, Lidia Castagneto-Gissey, Francesca Pellicanò, Andrea De Gaetano, Maurizio Pompili, Laura Riccardi, Matteo Garcovich, Marco Raffaelli, Luigi Ciccoritti, Ornella Verrastro, Maria Francesca Russo, Fabio Maria Vecchio, Giovanni Casella, James Casella-Mariolo, Luigi Papa, Pier Luigi Marini, Francesco Rubino, Carel W le Roux, Stefan Bornstein, Geltrude Mingrone
Journal: Gut (2022)

Clinical diagnosis and approval of new medications for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) require invasive liver biopsies. The aim of our study was to identify non-invasive biomarkers of NASH and/or liver fibrosis.
An ORFeome of rice E3 ubiquitin ligases for global analysis of the ubiquitination interactome
Authors: Ruyi Wang, Xiaoman You, Chongyang Zhang, Hong Fang, Min Wang, Fan Zhang, Houxiang Kang, Xiao Xu, Zheng Liu, Jiyang Wang, Qingzhen Zhao, Xuli Wang, Zeyun Hao, Feng He, Hui Tao, Debao Wang, Jisong Wang, Liang Fang, Mengchao Qin, Tianxiao Zhao, Pingping Zhang, Hefei Xing, Yunping Xiao, Wende Liu, Qi Xie, Guo-Liang Wang, Yuese Ning
Journal: Genome biology (2022)

Ubiquitination is essential for many cellular processes in eukaryotes, including 26S proteasome-dependent protein degradation, cell cycle progression, transcriptional regulation, and signal transduction. Although numerous ubiquitinated proteins have been empirically identified, their cognate ubiquitin E3 ligases remain largely unknown.
Abstract 15758: Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Atherogenic Activities of Ncx 6560, a Nitric Oxide (no)-Donating Statin, in Hypercholesterolemic Mice
Authors: Stefania Momi, Falcinelli Emanuela, Alberti F Paolo, Monopoli Angela, Miglietta Daniela, Ennio Ongini, Paolo Gresele
Journal: Circulation (2010)

NCX 6560 (NCX) was previously shown to prevent platelet-dependent thrombosis in vivo in normocholesterolemic mice. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic properties of NCX in an animal model of hypercholesterolemia. We assessed the effects of 3 weeks of oral administration of NCX (6,12 and 24 mg/kg) or of equivalent dose atorvastatin (atorva) (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg) on intimal hyperplasia, atherosclerotic lesions and circulating inflammatory markers in LDL-R−/− mice kept for 16 weeks on a high fat diet (HFD); the femoral artery was photochemically injured and, 3 weeks later, histochemical analysis was carried out. HFD enhanced total and LDL cholesterol (from 294±8.5 to 898±41 mg/dl and from 188±12.6 to 732±62 mg/dl, respectively, p<0.01 for both), increased atherosclerosis-related inflammatory biomarkers (IL-6 from 18±1.8 to 27.1±0.8 pg/ml, p<0.05; sICAM from 463±37 to 524±17 ng/ml, p<0.05) and the degree of injury-induced femoral artery intimal hyperplasia (I/M f...
Effectiveness of a fourth dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine against all-cause mortality in long-term care facility residents and in the oldest old: A nationwide, retrospective cohort study in Sweden
Authors: Peter Nordström, Marcel Ballin, Anna Nordström
Journal: The Lancet Regional Health - Europe (2022)

The effect of a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the risk of death in the oldest and frailest individuals is unknown.Two matched cohorts were formed using Swedish nationwide registers. In the first, residents of long-term care facilities (LTCFs) given a fourth dose of an mRNA vaccine from 1 January 2022 onwards were matched 1:1 on birth year and county of residence to residents given at least a third dose (N = 24,524). In the second, all individuals aged ≥80 years given a fourth dose were matched 1:1 to individuals given at least a third dose (N = 394,104). Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios for all-cause mortality in fourth-dose recipients as compared with in third-dose recipients, with relative vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimated as 1 minus the hazard ratio.From 7 days after baseline and onwards, there were 1119 deaths in the LTCF cohort during a median follow-up of 77 days and a maximum follow-up of 126 days. During days 7 to 60, the VE of the fourth dose was 39% (95% CI, 29-48), which declined to 27% (95% CI, -2-48) during days 61 to 126. In the cohort of all individuals aged ≥80 years, there were 5753 deaths during a median follow-up of 73 days and a maximum follow-up of 143 days. During days 7 to 60, the VE of the fourth dose was 71% (95% CI, 69-72), which declined to 54% (95% CI, 48-60) during days 61 to 143. The VE of the fourth dose seemed stronger when it was compared to third-dose recipients where at least four months had passed since vaccination (P < 0·001 for interaction).As compared with a third dose, a fourth dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, administered during the Omicron era, was associated with reduced risk of death from all causes in residents of LTCFs and in the oldest old during the first two months, after which the protection became slightly lower. These findings suggest that a fourth dose may prevent premature mortality in the oldest and frailest even after the emergence of the Omicron variant, although the timing of vaccination seems to be important with respect to the slight waning observed after two months.There was no funding source for this study.
NCCN Guidelines® Insights: Lung Cancer Screening, Version 1.2022
Authors: Douglas E. Wood, Ella A. Kazerooni, Denise Aberle, Abigail Berman, Lisa M. Brown, Georgie A. Eapen, David S. Ettinger, J. Scott Ferguson, Lifang Hou, Dipen Kadaria, Donald Klippenstein, Rohit Kumar, Rudy P. Lackner, Lorriana E. Leard, Inga T. Lennes, Ann N.C. Leung, Peter Mazzone, Robert E. Merritt, David E. Midthun, Mark Onaitis, Sudhakar Pipavath, Christie Pratt, Varun Puri, Dan Raz, Chakravarthy Reddy, Mary E. Reid, Kim L. Sandler, Jacob Sands, Matthew B. Schabath, Jamie L. Studts, Lynn Tanoue, Betty C. Tong, William D. Travis, Benjamin Wei, Kenneth Westover, Stephen C. Yang, Beth McCullough, Miranda Hughes
Journal: Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (2022)

The NCCN Guidelines for Lung Cancer Screening recommend criteria for selecting individuals for screening and provide recommendations for evaluation and follow-up of lung nodules found during initial and subsequent screening. These NCCN Guidelines Insights focus on recent updates to the NCCN Guidelines for Lung Cancer Screening.
Emulsion-templated microparticles with tunable stiffness and topology: Applications as edible microcarriers for cultured meat
Authors: Sam C.P. Norris, N. Stephanie Kawecki, Ashton R. Davis, Kathleen K. Chen, Amy C. Rowat
Journal: Biomaterials (2022)

Cultured meat has potential to diversify methods for protein production, but innovations in production efficiency will be required to make cultured meat a feasible protein alternative. Microcarriers provide a strategy to culture sufficient volumes of adherent cells in a bioreactor that are required for meat products. However, cell culture on inedible microcarriers involves extra downstream processing to dissociate cells prior to consumption. Here, we present edible microcarriers that can support the expansion and differentiation of myogenic cells in a single bioreactor system. To fabricate edible microcarriers with a scalable process, we used water-in-oil emulsions as templates for gelatin microparticles. We also developed a novel embossing technique to imprint edible microcarriers with grooved topology in order to test if microcarriers with striated surface texture can promote myoblast proliferation and differentiation in suspension culture. In this proof-of-concept demonstration, we showed that edible microcarriers with both smooth and grooved surface topologies supported the proliferation and differentiation of mouse myogenic C2C12 cells in a suspension culture. The grooved edible microcarriers showed a modest increase in the proliferation and alignment of myogenic cells compared to cells cultured on smooth, spherical microcarriers. During the expansion phase, we also observed the formation of cell-microcarrier aggregates or ‘microtissues’ for cells cultured on both smooth and grooved microcarriers. Myogenic microtissues cultured with smooth and grooved microcarriers showed similar characteristics in terms of myotube length, myotube volume fraction, and expression of myogenic markers. To establish feasibility of edible microcarriers for cultured meat, we showed that edible microcarriers supported the production of myogenic microtissue from C2C12 or bovine satellite muscle cells, which we harvested by centrifugation into a cookable meat patty that maintained its shape and exhibited browning during cooking. These findings demonstrate the potential of edible microcarriers for the scalable production of cultured meat in a single bioreactor.
CD47/SIRPα axis: bridging innate and adaptive immunity
Authors: Anneloes van Duijn, Sjoerd H Van der Burg, Ferenc A Scheeren
Journal: Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (2022)

Myeloid immune cells are frequently present in the tumor environment, and although they can positively contribute to tumor control they often negatively impact anticancer immune responses. One way of inhibiting the positive contributions of myeloid cells is by signaling through the cluster of differentiation 47 (CD47)/signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPα) axis. The SIRPα receptor is expressed on myeloid cells and is an inhibitory immune receptor that, upon binding to CD47 protein, delivers a ‘don’t eat me’ signal. As CD47 is often overexpressed on cancer cells, treatments targeting CD47/SIRPα have been under active investigation and are currently being tested in clinical settings. Interestingly, the CD47/SIRPα axis is also involved in T cell-mediated antitumor responses. In this perspective we provide an overview of recent studies showing how therapeutic blockade of the CD47/SIRPα axis improves the adaptive immune response. Furthermore, we discuss the interconnection between the myeloid CD47/SIRPα axis and adaptive T cell responses as well as the potential therapeutic role of the CD47/SIRPα axis in tumors with acquired resistance to the classic immunotherapy through major histocompatibility complex downregulation. Altogether this review provides a profound insight for the optimal exploitation of CD47/SIRPα immune checkpoint therapy.
Soft Tissue Sarcoma, Version 2.2022, NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology
Authors: Margaret von Mehren, John M. Kane, Mark Agulnik, Marilyn M. Bui, Janai Carr-Ascher, Edwin Choy, Mary Connelly, Sarah Dry, Kristen N. Ganjoo, Ricardo J. Gonzalez, Ashley Holder, Jade Homsi, Vicki Keedy, Ciara M. Kelly, Edward Kim, David Liebner, Martin McCarter, Sean V. McGarry, Nathan W. Mesko, Christian Meyer, Alberto S. Pappo, Amanda M. Parkes, Ivy A. Petersen, Seth M. Pollack, Matthew Poppe, Richard F. Riedel, Scott Schuetze, Jacob Shabason, Jason K. Sicklick, Matthew B. Spraker, Melissa Zimel, Lisa E. Hang, Hema Sundar, Mary Anne Bergman
Journal: Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (2022)

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare malignancies of mesenchymal cell origin that display a heterogenous mix of clinical and pathologic characteristics. STS can develop from fat, muscle, nerves, blood vessels, and other connective tissues. The evaluation and treatment of patients with STS requires a multidisciplinary team with demonstrated expertise in the management of these tumors. The complete NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Soft Tissue Sarcoma provide recommendations for the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of extremity/superficial trunk/head and neck STS, as well as retroperitoneal/intra-abdominal STS, desmoid tumors, and rhabdomyosarcoma. This portion of the NCCN Guidelines discusses general principles for the diagnosis and treatment of retroperitoneal/intra-abdominal STS, outlines treatment recommendations, and reviews the evidence to support the guidelines recommendations.